Two hours of heavy rains brings Lucknow to its knees

Lucknow, July 26 (IANS) Two hours of downpour on Thursday evening brought the Uttar Pradesh capital to its knees, with most areas inundated with water and traffic snarl ups bringing the city traffic to a grinding halt.

It started raining at around 6 p.m. and the heavy rains continued till 8.15 p.m., leaving hundreds of people stranded under bridges, trees and bus shelters.

Power outages have been reported from many places while the deluge, submerged most city roads with knee-deep water, even across posh areas in Gomtinagar, Indiranagar, Narahi, Hazratganj, Aliganj, Mahanagar, leaving residents angry.

A miffed Satish Mishra, owner of a medical shop outside a hospital, wading through water on the road, vented his anger on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), blaming it for the mess.

“They are in power in the state, at the centre and also in the municipal corporations… now what excuse they have for this mess,” he asked.

There were many people airing similar sentiments who said that the civic authorities and the state BJP government were to be blamed squarely for the water-logging and poor cleaning of drains. Many areas and localities in old Lucknow were badly affected by the rains as water entered many areas around Nakkhas.

The situation comes even as in a day from now, the city will host Mayors of all Smart Cities of the country and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in in town for two days.

Officials at the Lucknow Nagar Nigam, while admitting to the problems, however said that in the limited resources, they have they are doing the best to ensure that there is no water-logging.